About the course:

Distinguishing good from bad arguments is a key academic skill. It is vital to the acquisition of knowledge: is that interesting looking article really going to make an important contribution to your research project? Or is it misleading, badly argued and ultimately a waste of time? And how can you judge? Critical thinking - at least as standardly conceived in the Anglo-Saxon tradition over the past 100 or so years - promises to teach these skills, and teach them in a way that transfers between different disciplines, and even different areas of everyday life.

This is a course on critical thinking which blends traditional critical thinking elements with critical thinking about critical thinking. To put it another way: during the first seven lectures we will be simultaneously studying critical thinking (by working through a standard introductory text book available) while trying to get to grips with why it can be so hard. Indeed, we will use these difficulties to subject the central claim of standard critical thinking (namely that it teaches a transferable skill) to critical analysis. We will do this by discussing such topics as cognitive biasses and fast versus slow thinking, drawing on the work of such authors as Cordelia Fine and Daniel Kahneman.

But critical thinking is not merely an individual matter, and the difficulties in attaining something worth calling ''critical thinking'' are not traceable simply to cognitive biasses: social and institutional factors play a crucial role. Moreover, in these days of fake news, many of the fundamental assumptions underlying even the desirability of critical thinking are being questioned. Hence the last three sessions will be devoted to such topics as the power of language, and the role of communities of learning.

Still all too difficult...? DAY BEFORE EXAM: THURSDAY 4th MAY...!!! At 13.15 in 42.1-39.

COURSE READING:

The reading for this consists of a textbook, and a number of papers and extracts will be made available through the course. The textbook, Alex Fisher's ''Critical Thinking: An Introduction'' (see image below) clearly discusses strategies for evaluating the sort of arguments and information you are likely to encounter in your reading and project work. The book contains many exercises and example texts and is ideal for self study.

A mind of its own

Why are human beings so bad at thinking straight? Blame the brain and the way it's wired! Though this book is so readable, and so well thought out, that it has the slightly paradoxical effect of showing that some brains can get it very right indeed!

THINKING, FAST AND SLOW

Daniel Kahneman on his joint work with the late Amos Tversky on the `two track' model of cognition, and more. Lucid, and accessible-

how we think

Author: John DeweyPublisher: Forgotten Books (2012)

ISBN-10: 1440049238

ISBN-13: 978-1440049231

Arguably the first text on critical thinking. John Dewey, famed as one of the founders of American Pragmatism, was also a well-known educator. This little book is an accessible summary of his views. Well worth the effort-